


A Hundred Peonies

by gizkas



Category: Korean Drama, 달의 연인-보보경심 려 | Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo (TV)
Genre: F/M, Reincarnation, Spoilers for the ending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-04
Updated: 2016-11-04
Packaged: 2018-08-28 23:41:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8467576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gizkas/pseuds/gizkas
Summary: “In your next life you will remember me, right?”
--He’s been in love with Ha-Jin for years, and she just broke up with his brother.





	

“ __In your next life you will remember me, right?”__  
  
\--  


She needs a place to stay and he has one. That’s all it is to start.

 

Because for so long, Ha-Jin’s entire life has revolved around his family, and he knows what it’s like to suddenly be cut off. Better than anyone. Jung’s not the black sheep (So has had that title firmly cornered for the last two decades), but he’s never wanted to be a part of the chaebol. So a year ago, he got a full-time job working as a Kuk Sool Won instructor and rented out his own place above a veterinarian's. Away from the Wang family compound. Away from Ha-Jin and his brothers.

 

And it worked, a little. It helped to be away. To not watch as she took more and more time off from her cosmetic’s job to help So with business. To stay by his older brother’s side instead of taking all the trips she used to tell him about. To watch So grin as Ha-Jin fed him barbeque in their kitchen. It all worked out well enough.

 

But then, for whatever reason, she decided she wanted out. And he had a spare room.

 

She’s not the Ha-Jin he remembers--less animated, more viscerally exhausted. But she rolls her eyes when he flexes his arms bringing in her luggage, and smiles when he excitedly offers her the desk by the window.

 

He’s been in love with Ha-Jin for years, and she just broke up with his brother.

 

\--

 

The first month isn’t quite a dream, but sometimes it feels close. Ha-Jin is still quieter than she used to be when they were younger, and every once in awhile he catches her staring out at nothing. But when he comes home from teaching lessons at the gym, there’s slightly burned food, tea, and conversation waiting for him.

 

Before he drinks, he loosely holds the cup and inhales the aroma.

 

A part of him, the part that feels older and further away than he can explain, knows he has been waiting for this tea for a long time.

 

\--

 

Two months later, he comes back to the apartment and sees a pair of men’s shoes right next to hers. His throat runs dry, and his chest flutters as he desperately tries to remember what type So wears.

He shuts the door as lightly as he can, fingers digging into the strap of his gym bag as he steps through the threshold. He hears the voices of Ha-Jin and a man filter back to him.

 

“It’s not like it was before,” she says, her voice sounding impossibly sad.

 

“What do you mean?” Asks the man.

 

“...I’m not pregnant.” Jung can’t move. He doesn’t even dare to breathe until Ha-Jin starts speaking once more. “What if we’re never meant to-”

 

“Hae Soo…” The man interrupts gently.

 

Jung doesn’t know that name, but it stirs something in him. He closes his eyes and can almost find it -- long, black hair with flowers. A girl standing in front of him protectively with nothing but a stick in her hand, _chamchamcham_  --

 

“Things will always be as they should,” the man offers after a moment. There's silence, then the sound of footsteps coming closer to the door.

 

Unsure of what to do, Jung stays rooted to the spot until he sees the stranger come into view. He is older, round glasses perched on a wise face. The man stops, placing a hand on Jung’s shoulder.

 

“You are never born with the star of a king,” he says before leaning closer. “But maybe that means this could be a story with no tragedy in its ending.”

 

Jung doesn’t know what that means. And only stares stupidly as the strange man walks away from his life just as easily as he walked in.

 

\--

 

He goes into the living room. Ha-Jin rubs quickly at her face before offering a bittersweet smile.

 

“You split your lip again.” Her eyes are red with tears.

 

Jung frowns. He sets down the gym bag. “What’s wrong?”

 

She rests a hand on his arm. Her skin is warm and he feels his heart pound the way it always does around her. For a moment he stares down into her wide eyes and tries to line up the images in his mind that don’t want to make a full picture.

 

Her fingers fall from him. And Jung feels painfully cold as she steps past him into her own room.

 

\--

 

A month later, and Ha-Jin’s found a new job. Her former position at the cosmetics company (the one she loved. The one she left _for So_ ) was filled during her time working for the Wang chaebol, but she seems to like her new role. It’s as a make-up artist for a production company, one of the ones that do commercials.  
  


She comes home, tells Jung about her first day. And he listens, unable to stop from smiling, as she animatedly tells him about one of the idols that made a scene about a drink and stormed off-- a little like Eun the first time she met his half-brother (and, as he has been repetitively reminded in messages, his favorite _pop superstar_ ). She smiles at some of the more dramatic parts, her hands flying in the air like small birds. And Jung knows it’s been awhile since he genuinely laughed-- since they felt like there wasn’t the ghost of something in between the spaces they share.

 

\--

 

Later that night, he’s yawning and stumbling to the kitchen for a snack when he sees Ha-Jin’s phone light up.

 

She’s missed four or five messages from So.

 

Jung doesn’t open them, though he wants to. Instead, he clenches his jaw and tries to find sleep for the next three hours.

 

\--

 

It’s enough that she’s there. That he can see her.

 

That they’re friends.

 

It’s enough.

  
  
And he’s a liar.  


\--

 

A few weeks after that night, So is on the news channel. His older brother is opening another real estate development. Jung doesn’t try to read too much into the fact that it’s in Ha-Jin’s old neighborhood, but from her spot next to him, she tucks her knees under her chin and gives a wistful smile.  


\--

 

Ha-Jin starts painting. He sneaks peaks sometimes, before she notices and swats him away--they’re of people. From the Goryeo era, if he had to guess. There’s something that looks familiar in all of them-- but then something throws off his attention before he can figure out what it is. Hair that’s too long. A mask.

 

\--

 

Two months later and he hears Ha-Jin crying from behind the closed door of her room. He tries calling for her, but the door is locked and so he just sits on the other side of it-- letting her know he’s there and waiting if she ever wants to leave, his fists balled up helplessly in his lap.

 

\--

 

The next morning (after she wakes him up from his spot on the floor) he figures out the source of her pain.

 

He has a text from his mother. So’s engaged to someone from the Hwangbo chaebol.

 

Apparently it’s on every major production company’s radar, including the one Ha-Jin works for.

 

\--

 

He offers to let her fight him. Just one punch, but it can be on his face. As hard as it can. If it makes her feel better.

  
She doesn’t take him up on it, but instead of locking the door between them, she lets him hold her as she cries, once again, over his brother.  


\--

 

When he gets the invitation, Jung throws it in the trash. It’s a chaebol wedding anyway, and not something he belongs to anymore.

 

\--

 

Four months after the wedding, Ha-Jin starts smiling again -- though it’s not the same as before.

 

\--

 

“How come you’re never out on dates, Jung?” She teases him one morning, as she’s slipping on her shoes to go to work.

 

He presses his lips together tightly before managing a strained grin.

 

“It...hadn’t crossed my mind.”

 

Ha-Jin looks at him for a long time, the strap of her shoe absently sliding over her heel.

 

\--

 

She needs a ride home. It’s raining, and all he’s got is his motorcycle, so he pulls under an overhang so they can wait it out.

 

Ha-Jin’s shivering, so he grins and wraps his arms around her from behind.  


“Jung-!”

 

“You’re cold, aren’t you?” He asks boyishly despite the fact that his pulse is almost ready to jump from his throat.

 

She looks up at him with a slightly annoyed expression, but after a few minutes she gives up and leans back against his chest.

 

They can both hear how quickly his heart is pounding.

 

\--

 

He brings her peonies on their year anniversary of being roommates.

 

She stares at them, slightly pale.

 

Jung looks down, seeing that some of the petals have started to wilt. “I can get water-!”

 

Her fingers slide over the backs of his hands. They’re soft and he wants nothing more than to hold them forever. Gently, she takes the vase from his grip.

 

“I’ll do it,” she says, a soft but distant expression across her face. She lifts herself up to kiss his cheek. “Thank you.”

 

\--

 

He’d bring her peonies for a hundred years.

 

\--

 

They’re watching a movie together. Her legs are strung casually over his lap, her head against the opposite end of the sofa. A half-eaten bowl of popcorn is resting on her chest, which she shovels in her mouth by the handful.

 

This is all he needs, he thinks. Just the two of them together.

 

She nudges his bicep with the empty bowl. “More popcorn!” She teases.

 

“I love you,” he replies.

 

Her grip on the bowl falters. And Jung watches, feeling nervous. Feeling determined.

 

Ha-Jin lets go of her breath.

 

“...thank you.”

 

And with a tentative look, she moves to rest her cheek on his shoulder.

 

\--

 

_Thank you._

Maybe that's enough of a start.


End file.
